Mats Wilander: 'Rafael Nadal is human, hard courts are not good for him'

On Eurosport Mats Wilander and Barbara Schett spoke about Rafael Nadal's retirement from the US Open. 'That's obviously not something that we wanted to see.

Rafa Nadal had to retire because he injured his knee. He has played too much tennis over the course of two weeks. It just shows he is human, as well', Schett said. 'He is human', Wilander admitted. 'What he has done in the last three rounds, against Karen Khachanov unbelievable match, against Nikoloz Basilashvili unbelievable match, and then the one against Dominic Thiem that ended at 2:04 at night.

He got to bed at 5 or 6. He had two days in between them, obviously the first day was completely gone. Because you can't sleep from 6:00 AM to 3:00 PM. His knees played long matches. Today there was definitely something different when he started.' Wilander also explained why Nadal has been dealing with injuries for such a long time: 'The way he plays, hard courts are not good for him and are not good for anyone.

Eventually hard courts will get to you because of hips, back, knees. But hard court is the most popular surface that you plan or and sometimes the best tennis is played on hard courts. Yes, that's true, but sometimes we see situations that are too bad.